Dr. Zenaida M. Sumalde of the College of Economics and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños (CEM-UPLB) was recognized as the 2017 UPLB’s Most Outstanding Researcher for Social Sciences in the senior faculty category.
As one of the esteemed project leaders of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), Sumalde is involved in the Council’s program: Ex-Ante Evaluation of PCAARRD’s Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP). Her involvement in the said program was instrumental in her selection for the award.
Her study, along with her colleagues from CEM, was considered unique since it included tracing the adoption pathways of each commodity under the ISP. It validated the assumptions and targets and estimated the economic viability of each intervention.
Sumalde’s fields of interest include natural resource and environmental and agricultural economics. She also actively participates in numerous collaborative projects in the areas of aquaculture pollution, solid waste management, and policy advocacy.
To date, Sumalde has either authored or co-authored books and has published more than seventy academic papers and book chapters in different media, which she has presented in various conferences locally and abroad.
Sumalde started her research career right after completing her bachelor’s degree. She worked under the Regional Training Program on Food and Nutrition Planning where she had a good appreciation of nutrition economics research. She later joined CEM as a faculty member where she started to work on natural resource economics research. Since then, she started to receive research grants and valuable trainings from which she built her credibility as a researcher.
Sumalde earned her degree in Agriculture (major in Agricultural Economics) and MS degree in Agricultural Economics at UPLB. She also obtained her PhD in Agricultural Economics in the same university but with course work taken from Purdue University in Indiana, USA. Currently, Sumalde is the Director of the Institute of Cooperatives and Bio-Enterprise Development of the University.